Portable and collapsible seat and leg board for leg amputees

ABSTRACT

A portable and collapsible seat comprised of hinged boards used by patients with an amputated leg to support their remaining stump in a horizontal position when they are in a sitting position in a chair and provided with an easy releasable hinge to drop the hinged board when the patient wishes to rise to an upright position.

United States Patent Forrest 1 Jan. 21, 1975 PORTABLE AND COLLAPSIBLE SEAT AND 2.609.864 9/1952 Gates, Jr 297 429 LEG BOARD FOR LEG AMPUTEES 2,826,242 3/1958 Thompson 297/433 2,872,260 2/1959 Wuller 108/81 [76] Inventor: Edward J. Forrest, 66 Elmw od 3,565,485 2/1971 Eisenhauer 297/423 Ten, Wayne, NJ, 07470 [22] Filed: June 28, 1973 Primary ExaminerCasmir A. Nunberg [21] Appl. No.: 374,480

[57] ABSTRACT 521 11.5. CI T. 297/423, 297/429, 297/433 A Pmwlb1e and collapsible seal Comprised of hinged 51 Int. Cl. A4'7c 7/50 beards used by Patients with an amputated leg to p- [58] Field of Search 108/77, 78, 30422, P their remaining Slump in a horizontal position 103/115; 312/313, 183; 297/423, 429, 430, 433 when they are in a sitting position in a chair and provided with an easy releasable hinge to drop the hinged 5 References m board when the patient wishes to rise to an upright p0- UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,604,140 7/1952 Bursey 297/429 2 Claims, 8 Drawing Figures PATENTED M21 I975 3. 861 ,745

sum 2 or 2 I I1 m l PORTABLE AND COLLAPSIBLE SEAT AND LEG BOARD FOR LEG AMPUTEES This invention relates to a seat board for patients having an amputated leg and more particularly a portable board that may be placed upon any reclining chair as well as on a wheel chair, in which the board is separated into flat sections that are hinged together and is provided with means to retain the boards in a single horizontal plane or by means of a releasable hinge allow the seat board to remain as a flat supporting seat while the stump supporting board is swung downward to permit the patient to arise from a sitting position.

Patients with amputated legs when sitting require a horizontal support for the remaining portion of the leg or legs to insure proper blood circulation. Therefore it is essential to provide an auxiliary portable seat board that may be placed upon most any chair. The support board being intended to retain the amputee-s leg stump in a restful horizontal relationship when the patient is in a sitting position. Since the patient must also be able to arise to a standing position, the support board must allow the leg stump support area to be dropped out of the way so that the patient can clear the board when arising therefrom.

It is an object of this invention to produce a portable seat board of hinged sections which may, in one position, support the amputee patient on any chair so that the leg stump is held horizontally, but in which at least one of the hinged sections is releasable to be dropped from its horizontal relationship, low enough to allow the amputee patient to arise from the sitting position without obstruction.

A still further object of this invention is to produce an amputee patient seat board that may be used with a wheel chair to provide the proper horizontal support for the leg stump and permit easy release of the supporting section when the patient arises from the wheel chair.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a portable seat board of hinged sections that may be supported on a chair and in which at least one section extends beyond and in front of the chair in a horizontal attitude to provide the proper support for the remaining portion of an amputated leg when the patient is in a sitting position and further in which the board is covered with a cushion of orthopedic felt to provide a dispersion of the patients weight and a comfortable retaining support.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a portable seat board of hinged sections that may be placed in any chair and in one position, at least one portion of said board extends beyond the seat area to support the amputee patients leg stump in a horizontal attitude while resting in the chair and in which the leg stump supporting section of the board is easily and quickly releasable by the patient to drop out of the way when the patient wishes to arise from the chair.

Further objects of this invention may be apparent by reference to the accompanying detailed description and the drawings in which FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a seat board,

FIG. 2 is a bottom plan view of the seat board,

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view taken on line 3-3 of FIG. 1,

FIG. 4 is a side elevational view partially in cross section taken on line 4-4 of FIG. I,

FIG. 5 is a side elevational view of the seat board fitted to a chair,

FIG. 6 is a bottom plan view ofa further embodiment of the seat board,

FIG. 7 is a side elevational view partially in cross section taken on line 7-7 of FIG. 6, and

FIG. 8 is also a side elevational view taken on line 8-8 of FIG. 6.

Referring to FIGS. 1 through 4 of the drawings there is illustrated a portable seat board 10 comprised of two sections 10A and 10B. The two sections 10A and 10B are joined by a pair of hinges 11. When section 10A is utilized as a seat, section IOB may be pivotally moved from an in line, horizontal position shown in FIG. 3 in full lines, to a dropped position shown in dotted lines. In view of the fact that this board is designed for leg amputee patients, to assist them in keeping the remaining stump of the leg in a horizontal position to promote normal blood circulation, it is necessary to have an easy but strong means to maintain the section 108 in the relation shown, as well as quick and easy means to drop section 103 when desired. Referring to FIG. 2 there is illustrated a hinge 12 that is mounted under the two sections 10A and 108. The hinge 12 is somewhat similar to a drop leaf table hinge having two arms 14 and 15 pivotally connected by a pin 16. Arm 14 at its outer end being pivotally connected to a right angle bracket 17 that is attached to the bottom of section 10A and arm 15 at its outer end being pivotally connected to a bracket 18 that is attached to the bottom of section 108. The pivotal pin and connecting arms 14 and I5 provide pivotally joined ends that form a joint to allow free movement when the hinge is moved downward as in FIGS. 3 and 4 but may have an abutting of the ends of arms 14 and 15 when moved upward to lock said arms in a strong supporting position. Thus in FIG. 3 the arms 14 and 15 being in alignment, will support section l0B much in the same fashion that a drop leaf of a table is retained in raised position. With leg amputee patients, it is necessary to provide comfortable chairs for sitting but it is essential that the remaining leg stump be held in a raised horizontal attitude. The board 10 placed upon any flat seat chair provides the proper support for a leg amputee patient. It is also necessary to provide means to drop section 108 when the patient wishes to rise. Therefore a release mechanism is mounted under the section 108. The releasing mechanism comprises a pivotally mounted arm 20 that is affixed to the bottom of section 108 by means of a right angle bracket 21. Arm 20 has one end 20A that bears upon the upper surface of arm 15 and the opposite end 208 is shaped as a flat finger area that may be pressed by a finger to cause the opposite end 20A to press downward and thus break the aligned arms I4 and I5 and allow the hinge to move to an open or dropped position for section 108.

The seat board 10 may be used with most any chair including a wheel chair, thus it is not necessary to purchase a special wheel chair as long as the amputee patient is ambulatory (with or without supporting crutches).

FIG. 5 illustrates a simple chair 25 (that may or may not be movable on wheel casters). With this type of chair the board I0 may be either affixed as a permanent seat or may be positioned on the cushion C and with the patient sitting on section 10A, the other section 108 may be lifted and the hinge snapped into an aligned relation as shown in FIG. 3. The amputee may then support the leg stump in a restful raised horizontal position. When the patient desires to rise from the chair, it is a simple operation to reach under section B and press arm 20 upward which causes the hinged section 14 and to break and allow the portion 10B 10 drop to the dotted position shown in FIG. 3, thus with the support removed, the leg stump will drop permitting the patient to rise.

A further embodiment of this invention is illustrated in FIGS. 6, 7 and 8 in which a different type of locking hinge is utilized. The same right angle support 17 is at tached to the underside of section 10A. Also section ")8 is provided with the same right angle bracket 18, and the two boards 10A and 10B are joined by hinges II. In this embodiment there is also a pair of arms 14A and 15A pivotally connected by a pin 16, however the arm 15A is pushed off center toward the under surface of the seat board and the arm 14A is thus pushed upward. Arm 14A has a slot 30 cut in a more or less vertical relationship to the seat and the underside of the seat portion 108 has an angle iron bracket 26 that is positioned and attached to the underside of portion 108. In the horizontal or flat aligned position of the seat, the slot 30 of arm 14A will align with and allow the vertical portion of bracket 26 to drop into the slot 30 and lock the hinged supporting arms 14A and 15A in this position. To insure this relationship there is a leaf spring 31 attached to arm 14A so that in a closed position (FIGS. 7 and 8) the end of spring 31 will bear against arm 15A to bias it or push it upward and lock the supporting arms in the full line position illustrated in FIGS. 7 and 8. A release element or arm A (FIG. 6) as shown in the previous embodiment is pivotally attached to an angle bracket 21 which is in turn attached to the under side of portion 103. When the finger face of arm 20A is lifted, the other end of arm 20A bears against the hinged arms 14A and thus lifts 14A past an aligned relationship with arm ISA so that they break and allow the section 108 to drop as shown in dotted lines in FIGS. 7 and 8. To again place section 108 in a supporting position. it is simply a matter of lifting 108 until it aligns with section IOA, at this time the hinged arms 14A and [EA will pivotally move up to again lock and support the seat board sections 108.

To make the seat board more comfortable there is a layer of orthopedic felt 27 applied to the upper surface of boards 10A and 108.

Although we refer to boards 10A and 108 as boards, it is understood that they may be constructed of metal, wood, plastic or any combined manufactured product having sufficient strength and preferably light weight.

Although we have described the seat board 10 as applied to a chair and all types of chairs. it is to be understood that since the board l0 is portable and may be made of Ieight weight material. it may be carried or transported and utilized in any place such as on a wall or on a raised portion of ground or on a box to provide the same purpose as described in connection with a chair. It is also to be understood that although we have described the seat board 10 as primarily for supporting a leg amputee patient, this may be applied to any chair for supporting one or both legs in a reclining position and may be comprised of more than two sections without departing from the spirit of this invention.

The invention described in detail in the foregoing specification is subject to changes and modifications without departing from the principle and spirit thereof. The terminology used is for purposes of description and not of limiation; the scope of the invention being defined in the claims.

What is claimed is:

1. An adjustable portable seat board for leg amputee patients that may be positioned on any support such as a chair to provide a support for not only the leg amputee patient but also the leg stump comprising:

two flat boardlike members connected by a hinge and aligned in horizontal relationship to provide a seat portion pivotally connected to an extended leg stump supporting portion a two armed pivotally connected hinge, a lower arm connected to the underside of the first seat board and an upper arm connected to the underside of the extended leg stump supporting section to support the extended board when in an aligned relationship a pivotally supported releasing element bearing against the under surface of the upper arm of the pivotally connected hinge. said releasing element forcing the two arms outward when depressed to break their straight line supporting position.

2. In a device according to claim 1 in which said supporting hinge is comprised of two arms one shorter than the other and both mounted either side of a pivotal pin and said hinge movable either side of an aligned relationship. said hinge arms mounted with one end pivotally affixed adjacent the leg portion of the board and the other end pivotally affixed to a bracket spaced from the seat portion of the board, a pivotally supported releasing element positioned under said leg portion and a slot cut into the longer arm of said hinge so that when said one arm of said hinge attached adjacent said seat portion of the board breaks inward to ward said board, the slot in the hinge arm will grip said pivotally supported releasing element and stop further movement of said hinge. 

1. An adjustable portable seat board for leg amputee patients that may be positioned on any support such as a chair to provide a support for not only the leg amputee patient but also the leg stump comprising: two flat boardlike members connected by a hinge and aligned in horizontal relationship to provide a seat portion pivotally connected to an extended leg stump supporting portion a two armed pivotally connected hinge, a lower arm connected to the underside of the first seat board and an upper arm connected to the underside of The extended leg stump supporting section to support the extended board when in an aligned relationship a pivotally supported releasing element bearing against the under surface of the upper arm of the pivotally connected hinge, said releasing element forcing the two arms outward when depressed to break their straight line supporting position.
 2. In a device according to claim 1 in which said supporting hinge is comprised of two arms one shorter than the other and both mounted either side of a pivotal pin and said hinge movable either side of an aligned relationship, said hinge arms mounted with one end pivotally affixed adjacent the leg portion of the board and the other end pivotally affixed to a bracket spaced from the seat portion of the board, a pivotally supported releasing element positioned under said leg portion and a slot cut into the longer arm of said hinge so that when said one arm of said hinge attached adjacent said seat portion of the board breaks inward toward said board, the slot in the hinge arm will grip said pivotally supported releasing element and stop further movement of said hinge. 